I'm impatient, so you get this today and not tomorrow.
They didn't even make it to the cave, before Dick got the bad news. Zatanna was busy until tomorrow morning. Unless Dick took some unexpected magical turn for the worse, he was just going to have to spend the rest of the day adjusting to being a quadruped. Bonus, cat boy hadn't had the decency to release his giant monsters after dark, like all proper Gotham villains. It was barely noon when Damian reached the cave, Dick plopped in the hood of his cape for the trip.
Red Robin would be longer making it back than they originally expected, as well. Turns out the guy hadn't known how to turn the cats back to normal either. Tim was going to have to stay nearby while the cops tried to secure the animals, just in case one of them woke up or broke containment. Batman, in turn, was searching for Mrs. Grey. Her son had said he'd cast the same spell on both her and Dick, so the probability of her survival and need for aid had skyrocketed. The cats in her apartment were in even worse condition than the ones that Tom had taken out to terrorize Gotham. The healthier ones had made a break for it when Bruce opened the door. They all needed to be rounded up, treated, and questioned if he had any hopes of saving her. Bruce had recruited Selina in the search and rescue, and if they could find Mrs. Grey before tomorrow, Zatanna would be able to change her back at the same time she did Dick. Well not exact same time, it'd be pretty bad for the secret identity if she got that good of a look at him. Still, they could both go back with only one trip to Gotham needed for their magic using friend.
Ah well, big bright side, though. Someone needed to watch Dick for adverse magical reactions, and Bruce had found his social skills long enough to pitch the idea of Damian doing so as being based upon his superior familiarity with animals. Dick got to spend the rest of the day with Dami, and the kid wasn't even trying to pretend to be unhappy about it. It was practically a vacation from that point of view.
Damian, for his part, seemed intent on not letting Dick walk on his own. Upon entering the cave, he'd gone from Damian's cape to Alfred's medical cot for blood tests, and as soon as Damian changed and was examined for injuries himself, he was back into his arms and up the stairs to the manor. Damian was taking the steps two at a time and doing a very bad job at covering his excitement, as he all but ran to his room.
Dick wasn't very surprised when he discovered why. Rounding the corner to Damian's room revealed Titus and Alfred the cat by and on his bed respectively. Both pets perked up at their entrance, quickly taking in their master's presence and then zeroing in on Dick in his arms. Yeah, this made sense. Damian loved these animal as much or more than a good chunk of their family. Of course, introducing them to Dick's new state would be one of the first things he'd want to do. Damian crossed the room to where Titus was laying.
As he kneeled down to show him to the dog, Dick dug his claws into Damian's arm. It wasn't that Dick didn't trust Damian's control over his animals. He was certain Damian wouldn't let either of them try to take a chunk out of him, but Titus was huge compared to him now. He wasn't super eager to get licked by a tongue bigger than his head, and okay yeah, he was also a little nervous about giant predators after the day he'd had too, so sue him. He was only human after all.
Damian gave Dick a reassuring scratch on the back of his neck, "Titus won't hurt you Grayson" Damian said. Even though Titus was now sticking his head into Damian's arms and jamming his nose into Dick's ribs, Dick had to turn his head up and send a stern look at Dami. Little brother affection or no, he wasn't actually a cat. He didn't want Damian forgetting that. That way lay lots of uncomfortable situations. Dick knew this for a fact, he'd been down this road with the Titans before. He'd ended up having to bite Wally to convince him to stop petting his stomach.
The look was ruined when Titus suddenly shoved his nose lower and made Dick nearly jump out of his skin. Flailing backwards, Dick made scratching motions at the dog's face and managed to force him to back off an inch or two. Thankfully, Damian, unlike some other people he could mention, did remember that he wasn't actually introducing two animals and stood up, carrying Dick out of the reach of Titus's wandering sniffer. Dick did not need a dog shoving his nose up his butt. Didn't matter if he was just being friendly, he had boundaries and that was crossing one of them big time. "Sorry," Dami apologized on behalf of his pet, and he did look like he genuinely felt bad about it. Dick bumped his head against Damian's arm to let him know the apology was accepted.
Reassured, Damian sat down on the bed. Right beside where Alfred the cat had gone from lazing in the sun to sitting stock still, tail twitching, as he glared at the new cat stealing both his master's lap and affection. Dick froze as tried to figure out which way to turn. Titus was working up the nerve to 'stealth' sniff him again, and Alfred looked like he would flay him alive if he turned his back. "Alfred," Damian chided, reaching down to scratch the cat and hopefully assure him that he was still loved, "Be nice, you like Grayson." Dick thought it was more along the lines of tolerated most days, like his master he was selective with his affection, but Dami's intervention did provide the opportunity to concentrate on protecting only one of his flanks, literally.
Titus was trying again to sniff parts Dick would prefer stay unsniffed, and Dick had to flip himself around in Damian's lap were the only areas Titus could easily reach were on his upper body. That, of course, earned him dog breath right to the face and giant nostrils being shoved into his ear. Dami did notice Dick's obvious distress and pulled Titus away, but not before the dog did exactly what Dick had been worried about and licked him right in the face. Gross, now he got to spend the rest of the day smelling like Titus's dog food.
Damian kept one hand on each of his pets for the rest of the visit, and Titus did eventually calm down. Though, Dick didn't trust him not to try again the second he turned his back. Alfred didn't get more pleased with Dick's presence. He was a little worried the cat might try to pick a literal cat fight if Damian went to the bathroom.
Alfred the butler eventually appeared and rescued Dick from having to learn combat skill in a new body on the fly. With the flawless logic and snark that could make even Bruce occasionally sleep and eat, Alfred brought Dami around to the idea that, maybe, it wasn't the safest thing for Dick to be around other animals right now. Damian couldn't watch Dick every second after all. Dick didn't really appreciate being painted as completely defenseless, but the appeal to Dick's safety allowed Damian to be convinced that cordoning off his pets in a different section of the house for the day was for the best.
Dick was initially relieved at the change, but the look on Damian's face as he left the animals behind a closed door, made Dick feel a bit like, well, a dick. He didn't really see where he could have behaved differently to make things go smoother, but he felt responsible for his little brother's happiness. He hated it when he was involved with anything that made him down.
He wasn't sure where Damian was carrying him when he figured out what he was going to do about it. Meowing softly, Dick shifted in Damian's arms and reached a paw out towards the ground. He'd try to jump down on his own, but he was a little worried he'd meet the carpet face first if he tried. Still adjusting to the new body and all. Damian placed him on the floor with a curious look on his face. They weren't anywhere special. Just one of the many many hallways in the manor, but all he needed for this was some soft open space.
Carefully, at first, Dick tested out his ability to walk. It was a bit like crawling around on your hands and knees. Different, but not difficult in the slightest. He still made a tight circuit around Damian's legs before moving on, just to make sure there weren't any surprises in how things worked. Next step, sprinting. Picking a spot on the wall a little ways down the hall, Dick took off towards it. He made it maybe five feet, before he sent himself sprawling head over heels across the carpet. He wasn't certain if he tripped on the carpet, his own feet, or if he'd just really screwed up the concept of running, but he was certain that the laughter he heard and the hands setting him back on his feet both belonged to Damian. Looking up he could see a genuine smile on the boy's face. He'd always known his baby brother was freer with his emotions around his animals, but it still warmed his heart to see it in person. Stealing body language from Alfred the cat, Dick put on his best that didn't happen/I meant to do that air. He wasn't actually embarrassed nor did he care if Damian saw him screw up, but the renewed laughter and fond petting he got from it was exactly what he'd been aiming for. Giving the boy another love headbutt. He picked another spot on the wall and took off once again.
It took him about an hour to master running then jumping and climbing. Damian followed along after him, giggling at his mistakes and rescuing him from the top of bookshelves, which he wasn't quite ready to try jumping down from himself. Yes, he hadn't learned his lesson the first time and had gotten himself stuck on the top of multiple bookshelves. Thank god, Damian wasn't into taking pictures for black mail purposes yet.
When he felt he had finally gotten the hang of the whole being a cat thing, he dragged Damian into a game of tag and hide & go seek. He started by darting away from the boy, then darting back to him, thwapping him on the shins with a paw, only to dart away once again. It only took two iterations for Damian to take out after him when he ran away. They chased and hid from each other all over the house from the wine cellar to the attic. Dick got stuck under an overturned box up there and Damian had to rescue him once again.
While they played, Dick would hide beneath couches and Damian would chase him out with a broom. Damian would hide around corners, and Dick would pad silently behind him waiting for the perfect moment to spring at the back of his knees, making him yelp and jump. Alfred must have gone through the house opening all the doors once he figured out what they were doing. It was the only explanation for the lack of barriers during their chase. Dick would have to give him a hug for it tomorrow. It was so rare to hear Damian laugh this much for this long. He had to keep it up until he just couldn't run another step.
Dick didn't know how long it had been before he reached that limit, but when he hit it, he hit it hard. Crawling out to the middle of the hallway, Dick plopped down and meowed pathetically until Damian popped out of the room he was searching and came over to check on him. A lot of weak meows and a rather bad game of charades later, he managed to get across the concept he was pooped and needed a break. He felt the siren song of sleep calling to him, as Damian carried him to his room.
When they arrived, magical wonderful Alfred appeared with a clean bowl of water for him, and he managed to wring a couple more giggles from Damian watching him try to figure out how to drink. Once his thirst was quenched, he caved. Damian was sitting against the headboard, sketch book propped against his knee, with one of his legs stretched out into a sunny spot on the bed. It felt a bit like heaven, as Dick stretched out across it, his back against Damian's leg. He closed his eyes and let sleep claim him.
—
Dick woke to the sound of a motor and someone scratching his back. Oh, so that's how purring worked. He'd have to file that away for future use. Letting his eyes slit open, Dick took in the changes in his surroundings. The spot of sunlight he'd gone to sleep in had moved to another section of the bed entirely, that meant a good chunk of time must have passed. Damian had put away his sketchbook, and he was now reading on a tablet with one hand, while petting Dick with the other. It was sweet how he'd gone through the effort to not jostle Dick or move away from him while he slept.
Environment established and paranoid internal Batman satisfied there were no super villains waiting for him to regain consciousness, he proceed in getting up. Damian startled a bit as Dick yawned and stretched into a sitting position. Dick tried to smile at him, remembered he really couldn't right now, and settled for pushing his neck and shoulders at the hand that had stopped petting him. Damian started scratching his back again at the prompt, "Pennyworth said that supper would be served soon," he said, "Do you want to go to the table?" Now that he thought about it, Dick was hungry and he could smell something awfully delicious in the air. Probably why he woken up in the first place. Nodding once in answer to Damian's question, Dick jumped up onto his chest. While being held was alright, being picked up wasn't the most comfortable sensation. He'd rather just skip that step if it was an option.
Damian set the tablet down, gathered Dick up, and headed downstairs. When they arrived in the small dining room the family used when company wasn't around, the table was already set and Alfred was in the process of ferrying food to and from the kitchen. "Ah, Master Damian very good timing," Alfred greeted, "Please, place Master Richard at his regular seat." Alfred gestured to the spot where Dick's normal plate and silverware had been replaced with a place mat and a desert plate. Well it wasn't like he could exactly eat with a knife and fork right now anyways, much less sit on a chair.
Damian set him down on the place mat, and then took his own spot beside him, waiting patiently for the rest of the food to arrive. There were two other places set at the table, which meant Tim and Bruce were back from the field and would be up any minute now. Alfred had been dealing with vigilante's need to work on the case until the last possible minute since before he'd been born. He had a good handle on exactly how long it took them to clean up in the cave and make it up to dinner, including time taken to finish those last couple paragraphs in the report that just absolutely could not wait until after dinner. If Alfred was serving food up here and not in the cave, they both would be on time, through no effort on their own parts.
Right on schedule, Alfred placed the last dish on the table and Tim and Bruce both appeared. Bruce claimed his seat at the head and Tim his directly across from Dick. Originally, he'd been directly across from Damian, but the under the table kicking contests had resulted in Alfred forcibly rearranging their seating. Meals had been less of miniature war zones ever since. Unless Jason was over, then all bets were off.
Normally, this would be the time that Dick would force his family into socializing with leading questions and idle chatter. Not just because he liked to hear himself talk, but also because it was often the only time he could find out what was going on with them and they couldn't escape. For example, he really wondered how Tim had gotten that large scratch down his arm that Dick didn't remember being there when he and Dami left for the cave, and Bruce was never going to volunteer information on what had become of Mrs. Grey unless someone outright asked him, possibly multiple times. With Dick's vocabulary stilted to loud or quiet meows and vague gestures with his paws and head, they were doomed to a silent dinner. He temporarily considered beating out questions in morse code, his family would certainly understand them, but dismissed it for how ridiculously long it would take to get the messages across. They could all finish eating and escape before he would get all the answers he wanted.
He was probably being overly dramatic. It wasn't like the dinner completely lacked conversation. A few pleasantries were exchanged as everyone filled their plate, and Alfred explained the food he'd made for Dick. Some sort of plain fish, easy on both his new digestive track and taste buds. Never the less, he was a little surprised when no one brought the case up at the dinner table at all. Tim and Bruce probably discussed it in the field over the comms, but Damian had spent the day with him. It was unusual that he wouldn't be even a little curious about what either of them had found out. Then again, it was completely possible that the case was exactly what Damian had been reading about on his tablet before Dick woke up. If they couldn't get him back to his real form in the morning, he really would have to resort to morse code or die of curiosity.
Dinner ended and Damian collected him again, moving down the hall to return to his room. Dick was still tired enough he could have probably happily dozed for a couple more hours by Damian's side, but he also didn't feel like being wide awake and unable to patrol at midnight tonight. As they came into sight of the media room, Dick meowed loudly and stared intently at its door. Damian gave him a suspicious look but acquiesced to his request.
Once in the room, Damian sat him down on the couch and Dick took off for the movie cabinet. Dick had to stretch up on his hind legs to reach the row of movies he was looking for. They had a rather good range of old horror flicks, more likely to make you giggle at the visible strings than scream in terror. Dick had been trying to watch the entire collection with Damian the past year or so. It'd had been great bonding material once Damian found out that calling the characters idiots only got him agreement instead of admonishments to be nice.
Dick batted at the third in a series of a truly awful satanic cult in the boonies movie. He'd watched the first two with Damian last week, and he was kind of curious if the blond cute girl lead would actually make it through the entire thing without being sacrificed. Damian snorted, when he saw what Dick was pawing at, "Really Grayson? This again. Can you think of no better cinema to waste your time on." Dick responded by giving him his best set of puppy dog eyes, technically kitty cat eyes. "Stop that." Damian said, deliberately staring anywhere but at his face.
Dick shoved off the cabinet, walking up to Damian's leg and giving him the most pathetic meow he could muster. He couldn't exactly use his normal methods of picking Damian up and tossing him on the couch. Which was only necessary, by the way, because Tim had teased Damian about watching B-movies when Damian said something surly about Tim watching chick-flicks with Steph. Damian had ramped up the denial of his enjoyment in them in response. It would take a while for him to get comfortable with admitting that he liked the horror movie nights again. Yes, he had nearly torn his own hair out when he figured out why there was sudden backtracking. He loved his little brother's willingly interacting, but sometimes he really just wanted to build a great wall of China between them all to prevent them from hurting each other.
"I'm not indulging you just because you look pathetic," Damian glared at him. Dick just raised one paw and set it softly on his leg, meowing again. He was the king wheedling people into doing what he wanted. Even Bruce admitted it. Dami tried to keep the glare up, but failed in the wake of Dick's overwhelming cuteness. "Fine, we'll watch your damn movie." Dick let the language slide, and Damian yanked the movie out of the cabinet. As soon as he was done placing the DVD in the player, he stomped over to the couch. Dick trotted along behind him, jumping onto his lap and curling up after he sat down.
Dick was happy to note, it only took fifteen minutes of watching the movie for Damian to drop the act and get invested. He actually nearly got tossed from Dami's lap during one particularly unexpected jump scare. The demonic mask had been cheesy, but neither one of them expected it to suddenly flash onto the screen. Alfred stopped by with popcorn at some point, along with strict instructions that Dick wasn't allowed to have any, and when the movie ended Damian walked across the room and put in another one without any prompting on Dick's part. It was a good night.
By the time the fourth movie ended, Damian was asleep. Dick found all his sleeping brother's adorable, but Dami was going to get a crick in his neck and be extra cranky in the morning if he spent the night on the couch. Dick planted his paws on Damian's chest and then softly bumped the sleeping kid's nose with his own. "Mhmm, Grayson?" Damian mumbled. Dick dropped down and grabbed the middle of his t-shirt with his teeth, yanking hard. "What do you want?" Damian said a little more alert this time. Dick jumped to the ground. Glancing back to make sure Damian had gotten up and was following him, he headed out the door of the media room. Dick led the sleepy Damian up to his room and hopped up onto his bed.
There wasn't really a question where Dick was sleeping tonight. Just because he'd been fine ever since the initial discomfort of the transformation didn't mean he'd remain so. He needed to stick by someone in case something went wrong in the middle of the night. He's fairly certain Tim would have remembered to warn him if there was any possibility of him transforming back without magical help, so there was minimal chance of him waking up naked in his little brother's bed. He's pretty certain that Dami would burst into flames from mortification if that happened. Possibly go so far as to refuse to speak to him for a couple days.
Damian changed quickly in the bathroom, hitting the lights on his way to the bed, and then pushed in beside him. Dick waited for him to settle, before picking his own spot to sleep. Dami still had a tendency to sleep like a plank, but he moved one of his arms out as a concession to Dick's prodding, allowing Dick to curl up against the side of his stomach for sleep. "Goodnight Grayson" Damian whispered. Dick meowed back just as quietly. It was a little embarrassing how quickly they both fell asleep.
End Note:
The morning after will probably be up tomorrow morning, but maybe up later tonight. All depends on when I finish editing it.
Feel free to leave criticism of this work or prompts for another work. I welcome all types of comments.